318 Report on a Manuscript Work of M. Andre. 



necessarily have been carried off by some cause, although no 

 vestiges of them can now be found at the feet of these py- 

 ramids. 



In Vallais, M. Andre describes many steep banks and 

 erosions of the water, which escaped Saussure, who had 

 seen only the lower parr, of the country, and that during no 

 more than two days. Nevertheless he also shows that this 

 great valley, so far from having saliant and re-entering an- 

 gles corresponding on two siJes, enlarges and contracts al- 

 ternately even to live times. In general the article Vallais is 

 one of the most complete in this work, M. Andre having 

 traversed it several times and by different routes. He points 

 out, in several places of the Alps, examples of schistose layers 

 twisted or bent in many directions, which it would be diffi- 

 cult to reconcile with the common theories. In general, 

 however, he appears very little favourable to the idea of the 

 displacing of strata. 



His description of Mont Blanc is precise and perspicuous, 

 and will be read with interest even after that of Saussure, to 

 whose veracity and accuracy he renders perfect justice. 

 With the same care he has described St. Goihard and its 

 environs. He remarks that the highest ridges are not in 

 the central chain ; a similar fact occurs in the Vosges. 

 M. Ramond discovered the same thing in the Pyrenees. 



In his description of Jura he carefully distinguishes the 

 compact calcareous rock without petrifactions, which forms 

 the central parts of the chain, from the calcareous congre- 

 gation of shells which compose the lateral and less elevated 

 parts. He observed rolied pebbles, and large calcareous 

 stones worn round by moving, like the masses of granite in 

 the Alps ; the latter also were discovered in Jura, although 

 not believed to exist by Saussure, who had not sufficiently 

 examined it, M. Andre likewise speaks of numerous ca- 

 verns and hollows in this chain. He describes its glaciers, 

 particularly the lime glacier five leagues from Besancon. Of 

 this he gives the temperature taken at different periods of the 

 year, to 3how that it is far from being the reverse of the ex- 

 ternal air, as some persons have alleged. 



His comparison of the Alps, of Jura, and of Vosges, is 



curious ; 



